Russia's president continues to prove he's one of the few men in the world powerful enough to do what he wants --and get away with it. International sanctions set in place after he seized Crimea and waged war-by-proxy in the Ukraine have kneecapped the Ruble and driven Russia into deepening recession, but haven't hurt Putin one bit: In June his approval ratings reached an all-time high of 89%. In October, he bombed ISIS forces in Syria and then met face-to-face with President Assad, making the U.S. and NATO look weak in the region, and helping rebuild Russian influence abroad. More »

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It is not breaking news to note that Hillary Clinton has been hurting — and not just with pneumonia. From questionable emails to reluctant press conferences to suspicious health issues, Hilary has suffered a disastrous public relations month.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, seems impervious to any accusations — that he bribed the read »

There are many, many distressing and/or disqualifying things about Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. But the Russia connection is probably the biggest, and both its nature and its implications are poorly understood. It encompasses Trump’s bromance with Vladimir Putin; his indifference to the responsibilities of the NATO alliance; the tangle read »

The Sunday September 18 election for the Russian parliament has given Vladimir Putin another pro-Putin parliament (Duma) to routinely rubber-stamp his most ludicrous and repressive legislation. His United Russia party gained a majority (54 percent according to preliminary results). No opposition party crossed the five percent hurdle; instead, read »

With oil markets hemorrhaging for more than two-and-a-half years amid the worst oil market in arguably a generation, two weeks ago it appeared that Russia and OPEC de facto leader Saudi Arabia, the world’s top two oil producers, could possibly and finally agree on an oil production cap at a planned informal meeting of oil producers to be held on read »

When I worked in Moscow as Bureau Chief of the now-defunct WorldWide Television News (owned by, then sold by, ABC News) in the mid-late 1990’s, not a week went by – not a week – that at least one “foreign” businessman was murdered in a Russian business “misunderstanding.” They weren’t necessarily European or North American, but also from newly read »

U.S. Army planners believe they may have to fight a “near-peer” adversary within five years. Near-peer in this case means a rapidly modernizing Russian military seeking to regain lost ground along Russia’s border with Europe. There’s plenty of evidence that Russia’s military is on the move in the Baltic region, near Ukraine, and elsewhere. Some read »

In the era of intensified information battles between the West and Russia, where the main bone of contention remains the case of Ukraine and the alleged annexation of Crimea by the Russian Bear, which in opinion of the West appears to be a renewal of superpower tendencies of the hungry beast, it turns out that a valuable asset are the people of read »

It took me seven years to track down General Ion Mihai Pacepa, the former chief of Romanian Intelligence, after he defected to the United States in the late 1970s. He was the highest-ranking Soviet bloc intelligence officer to come to the West, and his defection produced the total dismantling of the Romanian service, as well as the read »

Summer is over, the kids are back in school, and the market faces a shortened holiday week still contemplating a somewhat tepid August jobs report. What, if anything, do Friday’s data say about the broader U.S. economy?

The economy created 151,000 jobs in August, down from a revised 275,000 in July, the government reported early Friday. read »

Oil markets are still anemic after more than two years of over supply and repressed prices . From $114 per barrel in the summer of 2014, prices are now hovering in the mid $40s range, and have been unable to find a floor, market equilibrium, then trend upward and find a “new normal.”

Donald Trump could be America’s next president. RealClearPolitics figures Hillary Clinton leads him by less than 4% in the two key battleground states of Florida and Ohio, meaning that if one in 25 voters shifts to supporting Trump in both states he could potentially eke out an electoral-college majority. With ten weeks left before Election Day, read »

On July 7, 2016, Vladimir Putin signed into law the so-called Yarovaya Amendment to Russia’s anti-extremism laws. The amendment assigns sweeping new powers to security forces, beefs up controls of social media and telephone calls, and broadens the definition of extremism crimes. Paraded before the public as an anti-terrorism measure, its real read »

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